Photo Meets and Histograms

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to engage in a photo meet here in San Antonio. This was my first photography meet I've ever attended. I met some very enthusiastic photographers, and I hope to network even more as I become a regular at the gatherings. 


Again I've expressed an interest to network with other avid photographers, associations and clubs as I believe marketing is the key to any business' success. If I don't have people to experiment on, how else will I be able to improve and further learn? One needs to establish credibility. People help.


I along with other photographers of all skill levels gathered around the Dominion country club. For those of you who are unaware but interested, the "San Antonio Photography Meet-Up Group" meets every second Thursday of the month at the prestigious country club. Every month the group features a different speaker in regards to all aspects of photography.


This week featured a presentation on exposure and how to utilize our camera to judge and create better exposed photos. Here's what I pulled from the presenation:


Histogram. One of the most effective ways to judge exposure.
It's been my experience that simply depending on a camera's lcd just does not cut it. There've been way too many times when I've thought, by looking at a photo on my camera's lcd panel, pictures were rich and full of color-perfectly exposed. Only when I upload the photos onto my computer do I see that I was far from the truth. 


By learning how to effectively read a histogram of each picture can one actually gauge whether a camera is exposed well or not. Histograms show how dark and light a photo is. In addition, if there is little or much contrast, histograms will show it. Finally, histograms also capture how much detail a photo has. Here's the breakdown:


A tall spike to the very right side:  too bright
A tall spike to the very left side:  too dark
Spikes in the middle of the screen: distinct colors and contrast
A broad, wide curve: good contrast
Amounts of blue, green, and red colors

Philippines, 2011.

Here's a histogram for the corresponding photo to the left. 
First of all, you can see that there is much blue in this picture due to the tallest spike being in blue, In addition, this spike is to the right of the area, which symbolizes brightness. Even though this spike of blue is to the right, it doesn't go all the way to the very most right edge of the plane; if it did, this would represent over-exposure.


In addition, there is a broad curve  which symbolizes good contrast and detail. I also have lots of green, red, and yellow in the picture. 


Finally, there is a slight spike to the very left of the plane. This is due to the darkest area of the photo, the girl's hair. In a nut shell, this picture provides bright and colorful detail without being overexposed. 


By attending the photo meet, I obtained a better understanding of my camera's histogram and how it works. Instead of just depending on an image of a photo on my camera's lcd, I will rely more so on my histogram in order to judge how effective the exposure is. 


Overall I rate photo meets a valuable learning source. Its support group is phenomenal (42 people attended), and yes, the group even served freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. I'm hooked!